Mobile devices present unique usability challenges because of their small screens. The typical mobile device must be small and light enough to be carried by the typical user comfortably, and this often results in mobile device screens with a fraction of the size and/or resolution of typical desktop screens. In order to maintain usability, a message that does not fill an entire desktop screen may need to be displayed in multiple pages when viewed on a mobile screen.
When composing a lengthy message, a user sometimes needs to scroll up and down in order to refer to various sections of the message. When the user wishes to write again, the user must then scroll back to where he wishes to write before typing. This tedious scrolling reduces productivity and concentration and instead forces the user to focus on the user interface instead of on the message being composed.
A similar issue exists when a user composes a reply to a message chain. A message chain is a series of messages where one reply is placed on top of another reply, as in the case of a typical top-posting message chain. In this case, even the composition of a short reply may require the user to scroll down in order to refer to other messages in the message chain. When the user wishes to write his reply, the user must then scroll back up to the top before typing his reply. Similarly, if the email chain contains multiple statements to which the user wishes to respond to in his reply, the user may need to scroll down and up multiple times when composing his reply. Again, this tedious scrolling reduces productivity and concentration and forces the user to concentrate his attention on the user interface instead of the reply being composed.
This issue is further compounded when the user is composing the reply on a mobile device, as the small screen size and/or lower screen resolution requires the user to do much more scrolling than on a comparable desktop screen.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to have a method and device that, in part, improves message composition.
Similar reference numerals may have been used in different figures to denote similar components.